1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns reducing side-effects of certain chemotherapy, and particularly, side-effects manifested topically in areas of the hands and feet.
2. The Related Art
Chemotherapy can result in predictable toxicity to organs. An important chemotherapy is the use of 5-fluorouracil (5 FU), and its precursors, such as capecitabine available as Xeloda®, a drug produced by Roche Pharmaceuticals. Xeloda® and 5 FU can induce a skin side effect called “Hand-Foot Syndrome” (HFS). This syndrome can cause pain, a loss of feeling (numbness), a tingling feeling, swelling and redness in the palms of your hands and/or soles of feet. Some patients also get a rash, discolored skin, nail problems, and hair loss. Severe cases of HFS can be very painful, cause skin of the hands and feet to blister and peel.
Compilations relevant to this field include the following.
Mackean M, Planting A, Twelves C et al: Phase 1 and pharmacologic study of intermittent twice-daily oral therapy with capecitabine in patients with advanced and/or metastatic cancer. J. Clin Oncol 16:2977-2985, 1998.
Cao S, Frank C, Shirasaka et al: 5-fluorouracil pro drug: role of anabolic and catabolic pathway modulation in therapy of colorectal cancer. Clin Can Res 1:839-845, 1995.
Hoff, P: The tegafur-based dehydropyrimidine dehydrogenase inhibitory fluoropyrimidines, UFT/Leucoverin (Orzel) and S-1: a review of their clinical development and therapeutic potential. Invest New Drugs 18:331-342, 2000.
Johnson M, Hageboutros A, Wang K, et al: Life threatening toxicity in a dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase-deficient patient after treatment with topical 5-fluorouracil. Clin Can Res 5:2006-2011, 1999.